Tables turned

It was after 5pm, training just finished and I was trying to make it to the bus stop when I heard someone shout 'Adrian!!' in a happy voice. They could not have been calling to me, anyone who knows me well enough to be screaming my name knows to save themselves from that potentially embarrassing situation that occurred. I turned around and scanned the area.. nope didn't know anyone but there was a girl standing in front of the Dyoll building looking right at me with a big grin on her face.

As I walked over to her and she(clearly oblivious to the look of disgust on my face) threw her arms up expecting a hug but I stopped short as I was not about to touch this stranger or even pretend to know them. I asked for her to identify herself and tried to look at her work ID but she snatched it back quickly and said her name.. it was #1 crush. She was a bit meaty when I used to like her back in the day but not this plump apparently life has been good for her.. food wise.

To my surprise while talking to her she took out her phone and showed me she still had my number and thanks to my name being Adrian I was at the top of her contact list. I thought I was the only person who kept peoples numbers for a ridiculous amount of time even if I don't talk to them. Anyway she tried to explain why she kept my number but didn't use it before she had to run off. She called me later and said we should do lunch while I was in New Kingston but she didn't.. how typical of her.

The few days I took the bus I also made a friends with a few other girls who shared the same route with me, who knew the bus would have been fun and the girls so friendly :) My interactions with them were too short lived for me to feel the need to exchange any form of contact information with them but in retrospect they would make some convenient friends since they all lived fairly close to me. lol I should modify my friend making policy for the next time if I ever take the bus again.

On a somewhat related matter I mention the NWA had changed the traffic flow in New Kingston as well. Well last week I should have zigged when I zagged and I ended up with a traffic ticket.. damned police and road changes. Well it's not so bad, I haven't gotten a ticket in long time and I had many near misses and was due one.

The big bang

and so it came to be the physics alumni association at my university was launched last weekend, It was a weekend full of events but I only attended a mixer on Saturday night. I wouldn't really call it a big bang though more like a slow fizzle, most of the people there were double my age and the 'party' died a premature death around 9:30pm. As for people in my own age bracket there was only a hand full, maybe 10 of us then there were the old people.. did people stop graduating from physics for 20 years? why the big gap?

Anyway it was good talking to some of my old classmates, we got to talk about topics that would probably bore any other [physics]layman to death. One thing I noted was the majority of my classmates either completed their masters or was soon finished. The same applies to my coworkers in my dept. at work. Am I being left behind with my BSc. in physics only? I think it's time to start working on getting MSc. or MBA added to my singular list of accomplishments. Next year seems like a good time to apply for a programme, just need to pick something and find the time. *sigh* long roads ahead.

On an off topic note I also visited my friend in the hospital last weekend too. I'm not sure what was wrong with her but she had to have an emergency operation last week so I passed by the O&G ward to see her. I think this is the first time I've been in a hospital ward period. The place was hot, humid, lacked privacy, being the O&G ward was also teaming with ill women. My friend was so drugged up she didn't even realize I was there but in her high state she mentioned how she is awoken nightly by the sounds of women vomiting and crying.. how depressing. Come out soon!

jutc has a website?

So I am back in New Kingston again for training this week and the training center does not validate parking. Needless to say everyone that goes to that facility is not pleased with shelling out $200 a day for parking in a KSAC parking lot. When I used to work in that parking challenged section of the city I used to arrive at work before 7:00am just to squeeze into the last available free parking on the road in front of my office but that is no longer an option as I am now spoiled and probably wont leave my house that early just to wait and the NWA has now re-zoned the parking spaces into roadway.

Class was really boring and while spacing out I came up with the bright idea of taking the bus for a few days this week. The bus stop is less than a minutes walk from my house and I would only need one short $50 bus ride to reach the hip strip! I always thought my location made it so easy to get around but never really felt the need to hop on a bus before until I had to face these daily parking fees. Other than that it's totally not worth it.

What is funny to me is that I always cuss about Jamaica's public transport system being outdated and unreliable but my quick google search today brought me to JUTC's website with route information and all! My jaw hit the ground.. the site is ugly, the buses are probably still late but this was a step in the right direction. Maybe if my stint with JUTC works out for this week then I can look into using them some more.

I am alive.. somewhat

I will not call names but I am not one of those people that have forsaken blogsphere, I try to update this thing at least once weekly but as GC may have noticed I have been spread a little thin lately. So what have I been up to since early June?

• I have learnt art is where the money is. I went to a swanky art show at somebody's house in the Acadia suburbs of Kingston. Free wine, free food, 1/2 naked models bouncing up and down the runway, bumping elbows with people who buy paintings and prints at $400,000 a pop.. it was a good night. I think its time to pick up a paintbrush and a canvas.


• I passed through Caribbean Fashion week and a few of the parties. At two of the events fate would have it that r-dawg, my x from about 4 years ago, would cross paths and have plenty of time for awkward silence and to catch up. She is doing well she is now a medical doctor.. congrats r-dawg lol. Anyway the picture on the left does have some relevance. The promoters of CFW advertised a bunch of b-list celebs associated with the event and made a big deal about it. Now can someone tell me what does Nia Long, Eve, some lady from soul food have to do with Caribbean Fashion Week? You can't really see it in my picture but Eve has put on a lot of weight or was she always that fat? Does the TV camera hide the pounds? It took me about 20 minutes to figure who the fat lady was beside me at a party that everybody wanted to talk to. meh, maybe I'm just slow.
• The price for everything is went up yet my company has found a way to make savings by cutting my pay. I used to work at least 123 extra hours on a standby arrangement per month but effective July that figure has moved down to at least 67 extra hours. It's understandable though.. the timing is just bad given the current inflation trends. This will now free up some time for me to enjoy my nights and weekends more. They may be cutting my standby pay but as of recent I have been clocking some major overtime hours. Even later on tonight at midnight I shall be going to work to add 4 more hours to the meter. I'm not sure how I will make my meeting tomorrow at 9am after tonight's work.
• I went to the beach and got sun burned as usual. What was unusual was the two couples I saw doing it in the water. I always heard of people having sex in the water at the hellshire beach but this was the first time I was spotting it for myself. Should have brought along Tami the paparazzi to capture evidence. I guess it is time to find a new secluded beach.
  
• Everything at my company is last minute so when they asked me at Lunch time on Friday if I was able to attend a meeting in Florida on Monday I was not surprised. I looked on the itinerary and saw that I would be staying at a hotel right in front of Sawgrass Mills mall in Fort Lauderdale and my weekend instantly took a turn for the better. By early Sunday afternoon I was unpacked at trodding the 1+ mile of mall. I must say even though they have added two new sections since I've last been there the mall seems a lot smaller than I remembered.
• I have sold my trusty sidekick Olympus camera this morning and got $200 for it. I didn't want to sell it but after stepping up to the even geeky-er 400D Canon DSLR I could use some of the extra cash to help buy a lens. So far I've spent around $900 and I only have a starter kit, I need to budget like $600 more before I can start putting out some good quality pictures. I guess I should make photography my new hobby, or maybe I can make some money off it based on what I saw at the show mentioned in the first bullet point.

That's it for now.. hopefully I can put out more than 3 posts this month. I think it's time for some leave.